Arriving in Canada after two visa refusals

This testimony narrates the journey of an immigrant who lived through the difficult situation in Venezuela during the years 2014 and 2015, a dark time for that country, whose inflation made it almost impossible to ensure food, save money to travel or embark on a new course, but such was her desire to overcome that, together with her partner, she decided to start a plan that would take them to touch the extremes of the American continent. 

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She is Ondina Patricia Barillas Mappe, a veterinary medicine professional from Venezuela, who achieved the unimaginable in times of crisis, because she left her country with her husband and settled in Chile to finally find that the place that would give them the best welcome would be Canada.

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Join me in reading this journey compiled in the series: Immiland - Life Project, from our informative blog on immigration issues for Canada, which is based on real life cases of users and clients who were encouraged to tell their story. Let's get started!

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A country consumed by its own inflation

"We couldn't even afford such basic appliances as a washing machine."

Hello everyone. My name is Ondina Patricia Barillas Mappe and this is a summary of the long road I traveled with my husband to leave Venezuela, settle in Chile and finally arrive successfully in Canada.

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Unfortunately, in Venezuela, becoming independent, living as a couple, equipping our home, leaving work peacefully without thinking about social insecurity, as well as managing a family economy without being consumed by inflation were unattainable goals. My husband and I dreamed of coming to Canada from the very moment we made the decision to emigrate from Venezuela due to the situation we faced in 2014 and 2015.

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The reality is that, although we had economic income as professionals, even I who earned three to four minimum wages, we still could not even buy basic appliances such as a washing machine, for example, and these limitations were only leaving marks of frustration. This added to the impossibility of getting ahead with my husband's enterprise, who partnered with a friend to open an executive lunch restaurant, but due to the shortage of proteins and the abrupt changes in prices due to inflation, it was not possible to get it off the ground.

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We both knew that in order to leave Venezuela and go to Canada to live or visit we had to start a savings plan, but that was not feasible in our country, so we began an intelligent search for countries that met our objectives, especially that handled a viable legalization process, so we chose Chile!

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From Venezuela to Chile

"After two years of being in Chile, we already had some stability... so we took up the dream of coming to Canada."

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Emigrating to a country is not easy at first because it takes time to adapt to the new culture, get a stable job, among other things, but I had managed to revalidate my degree as a veterinarian and I could practice freely earning a salary according to my profession, likewise my husband was in a stable job with an indefinite contract, so we took up the dream of coming to Canada.

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By then, we were transiting the years 2018 and 2019, and we started a new process of searching for information, we went to conferences in Chile where they presented countries to go to study, especially English-speaking countries, so we were looking at different platforms and social networks, until my husband got the informative videos of Eddy Ramirez, Canadian lawyer and CEO of the company Immiland, and we liked the handling of her migratory and legal point of view.

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The Internet informs, but we need to go further

"... this is the lesson of the saying: "cheap is expensive"".

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On other serious YouTube channels, such as Planet John's, we would see opinions about what it was like to live in certain cities, and the reality is that we believed that, with all the information obtained on the internet, including the Canadian government page, it was enough, as everything was very well explained. By mid-2018, we had made the first application on our own, but this was rejected. We insisted on a second application, trying to correct the mistake we thought we had made, but this was also rejected.

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My husband and I preferred to do the application ourselves because, although we were in a more economically stable country, we still wanted to save some money for the trip, but that is the lesson of the saying: "cheap is expensive", because that was one of the first mistakes.

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A customized plan and third time's the charm!

"Of the three options we went for the study track, with me being the lead applicant as an international student."

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For our third application, we decided to invest efforts and contact an immigration consultant. From the beginning of the internet search Immiland had given us full confidence, since Eddy Ramirez spoke very clearly about the process, in fact, our first consultation was with her.

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When we told him that we had had two application rejections, the first thing he did was to recommend that we request a document from the IRCC (I don't remember the name because here in Canada the immigration processes are called by acronyms and that tends to be confusing). This document indicated in detail the errors that the immigration agent saw. This process was of great help, since from there and from the fact that we had a good immigration profile Immiland was able to make us a personalized plan that offered us three visa options.

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Of the three options we went the study route, with me being the main applicant as an international student, and my husband as a partner with an open work permit.

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Clarifying some important points from Immiland

Thank you for reading this far, my name is Angy Diaz from Immiland's Education Department and, before continuing with Ondina's testimony, it is necessary to make some important clarifications for you to better understand her process. The document she is referring to is the ATIP: Access to Private Information, a tool that gives you the opportunity to access the records of Canadian government institutions, ideal to know in detail the reason why the Canadian government has refused your visa. This tool only includes the rejection notes of the immigration officer who reviewed your application, so it is necessary to perform an in-depth analysis of it to know how your profile can be improved. 

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As Ondina says, the IRCC calls programs, procedures, permits and even immigration status with acronyms, so it is necessary to know them and what they are referring to in order to avoid unnecessary rejections. Immiland Canada offers the ATIP service in cases of visa denial, here I share the link in case you need it: immigration-services/visa-denied-atip.

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In addition, Ondina and her husband had managed to greatly improve their immigration profile because they were both professionals, so they were eligible for a postgraduate degree in Canada, had accumulated work experience and had raised funds. 

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As for the language, they had to reinforce it and a lot, even so their partner could travel as a companion with an open work permit. However, this year 2024 the law changed and this has affected couples who want to travel by way of study, as now only certain programs apply for the open work permit. I invite you to read this article of our blog for more information: Student couples in Canada can no longer come to work. Let's continue with the story!

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Apply to the college and program indicated 

"It was with Immiland that we realized that the college he was applying to was not granting the letter of acceptance as required under Canadian immigration law."

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My graduation ceremony at Mohawk College this year.

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It was 2019 and we had two visa rejections. It was with Immiland that we realized that the college I was applying to was not granting the letter of acceptance as required by Canadian immigration law,so we had to change our plan. To do so, we consulted with the Immiland Education Department. The team helped us to choose the right school and program, since not all institutions in Canada receive foreign students and not all careers work to apply, here you must follow a logical thread in the studies and the college must be approved by the government. 

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For example, as an international student, I had to be accepted exclusively by a DLI, that is, a school approved by a provincial or territorial government to receive international students, and I had to meet certain English language scores since I was applying to study for an advanced diploma in biotechnology, a career related to my university degree that requires a good command of the language. In my case, they recommended Mohawk College, which has a registration alliance with Immiland. 

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I will tell you later, in the informative blog of the language school Planeta Immiland, everything I did to learn to speak English through the pathway.

Visa approved and new goals to achieve

"Even though we had arrived in Canada we knew that our process was not yet over and that the next goal was permanent residency."

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Finally, in the year 2022, we received the visa acceptance letter from the IRCC and it was an important joy for us, because after two rejections and all that we lived during the process we had that "little fear" of receiving another rejection despite the four long years of effort. Although we had arrived in Canada we knew that our process was not over yet and that the next goal was permanent residency. 

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Without a doubt, we will do the process with Immiland Canada. Whenever I am asked if I have an immigration consultant or manager, I recommend them with my eyes closed. I want to emphasize the good attention and diligence to the concerns that were presented to us. 

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Something that we liked about Immiland and gave us confidence from the beginning was the fact that it is an organized company that has specific departments for each type of procedure and a team of specialized and certified professionals to provide consulting in Canada and who know what the solution is at critical points in the process. Thank you very much to the entire Immiland team!

Ondina

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Thank you for reading this testimonial. We hope you liked it and that you are encouraged to explore your options to immigrate to Canada. You can schedule an educational consultation here.

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I invite you to leave your reaction at the end of this article and comment on our networks and social platforms at the end of this blog. 

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With love, 

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Immiland Canada Education

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